In the fall of 1989 a slogan and a categorical label coupled to give birth to an aural entity under the moniker of Mind Skelp-cher. The parental lineage of this entity - "Mutilating the accepted formula for modern music" and "Audio Terrorism" - found their genetic fulfilment through Mind Skelp-cher's determination to be the new frontline forces of the Avant Garde. Steps towards the seizure of power were made in 1990 with the issue of an independent cassette with limited circulation. Illustrating Mind Skelp-cher's birth agonies, "Turn the Pages of Time" was a primitive exploration of tape manipulation, effected percussion, and electronic noise with an emphasis upon the subject matter of abnormal psychology.  Six months following the release of "Turn the Pages of Time", MindSkelp-cher secured new psychosomatic material for the 1991 release of "Noise Resin." Along with Mind Skelp-cher founder Jared Davison, Jim Dejong and Neb Rakic provided the necessary poison to the gene pool that resulted in "Noise Resin" being a true crystallization of the ensembles parental lineage. Textual experimentation in the tradition of Dadaism, aggressive vocals, found sound Percussive elements, and a swirling cacophony of noise conspired to make "Noise Resin" a staple in the history of experimental music in Ontario, Canada. 1991 additionally marks the inception of Doomsday Transmissions, initially designed as a vehicle and label identity for Mind Skelp-cher releases, which continues to this day as a prominent label/distributor.

Late 1991 gave Mind Skelp-cher the strategic advantage of developing its "assault, subversion, and disorientation" technique in a live context, followed with increasing victory over radio broadcast exposure. In 1992 a sixteen track scrapbook of absurd sonic experiments appeared under the guise of a cassette ambiguously called "Koro." This manoeuvre saw a particular maturation of Mind Skelp-cher's formula that resulted in a compositional work that is both unnerving and fantastically surreal. "Koro" champions Nietzschean concepts, provides a forum for ritual curses, and weaves a haunting story with abstract sonic/textual invocations.  Following the issue of "Koro", Jim Dejong departed to pursue solo work as The Infant Cycle and was dutifully replaced with Adam Thornton, who at the time was a publisher of unsettling fiction via a journal appropriately called "Lost". Adam's contribution to the Mind Skelp-cher mythos was of a character commonly found in the unsettling atmospheres of the genius of David Lynch, and thus 1993's "Eight Uneasy Pieces" is uneasy in content as well as in title. The eight tracks that comprise this release are dark, nightmarish ensembles conveying the disjointed perspectives and uncertainty of environments peculiar to dreams. "Eight Uneasy Pieces" continued to refine the experimentation wrought by the previous releases whilst adventuring into new textural depths with multi-layered sound and new perspectives on unconventional sound sources.

Several live performances and radio appearances occurred for the duration of 1993 and Mind Skelp-cher officially disbanded in early 1994. Neb Rakic began to pursue solo work as AER, Adam Thornton as Greenman, and together with Alex Araya and Adam Hurlburt, Jared Davison formed a unit under the moniker of Shades of Lividity. Shades of Lividity successfully released two cassettes: "The Butterfly Effect" and "Clavis Transmutation" as aggressive gothic death metal colliding with atmospheric soundscapes, illustrating Promethean concepts of Black Magical inquiry and the rants of Ragnar Redbeard (pre-Boyd Rice) and others. While allied forces were recuperating from Mind Skelp-cher's last manifestation, a clandestine operation was set in motion for an unanticipated onslaught.  1995 heralded for Mind Skelp-cher the formation of the Sculpturesque Productions label and a hoisted flag of epic aural triumph. Increasingly interested in developing an aesthetic that would alienate and isolate, Mind Skelp-cher upheld the convictions of Julien Benda regarding populist music as the intoxicant for "all those who think basely and vulgarly." Vincent Sherry further demonstrates that "a weakness for such populist passions appears to Benda as the meagre birthright of the lower social orders. Their servility and lack of sophistication open them to the emotions that music so insidiously plays upon." "The Psychecentric Womb", as the regalia of this new aristocratic movement in Mind Skelp-cher history, was a ferocious hybrid of Doom metal, moody dark synth, bombastic percussion, noise drenched eruptions, scathing power electronics, aggressive oration and solemn atmospheres. Mind Skelp-cher took this anthem-oriented approach to the arena of public performances, shocking audiences with its uncompromising theatrical/dramatic propaganda and elaborate stage props/special effects, effectively leaving venues scarred with residual memories. 1995 and early 1996 additionally was host to anincreasing media presence as international magazines, newspapers, and fanzines became platforms for the "terror campaign," most notably Tatoo Savage, issue #16.  1996's "It Came From Angled Space" was a significant departure from the rigid structures and calculated compositions of "The Psychecentric Womb." As an illustration of Lovecraftian themes, "It Came From Angled Space" contained an aural approach that conveyed a sense of an impending dread that is never resolved in a conclusive climax, effectively leaving the listener in a state of paranoid trepidation. This approach was effectively realized via textural approaches to sound utilizing environmental recordings, electro-acoustics and tape manipulation as mediums. As a non-spatial and timeless invocation of Eldrich Horror, "It Came From Angled Space" has been described by N. Schreck of Wolflsair Inc. as being the perfect soundtrack to Frank Belknap Long's classic tale, "The Hounds of Tindalos."  After a brief hiatus, Mind Skelp-cher has resumed its impulse for conquest, courting Germany's Art Konkret and Canada's Musicus Phycus for its ensuing CD manifestos. Revealingly titled "Vortical Movements" and "Novis Plasteknich", these gestating recordings maintain the spirit of innovation found in Vorticism, Futurism, Constructivism and De Stijl. Inspired by the works of Crumb, Varese, Ligeti, and Boulez, Mind Skelp-cher advances forward with an exploration of polyrhythms, metrical elasticity, dissonant and fragmentary melody, atonality, tone clusters, and polytonality.  Common to Mind Skelp-cher's dedication to variation, recent topical inspiration is an eclectic union ranging from Shaw to Beckett, from Gothe to Baudelaire, and from the prose of Old Norse to the mathematical composition of the Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle. Seizing this new impulse, Sculpturesque Productions, as per Mind Skelp-cher's dedication to refinement and evolution, has undergone its transmutation into the vehicle of the House of Legominism, which is host to several vital endeavors such as A.T.T.A.C.

In the ensuing years, Mind Skelp-cher and its various workcorps will continue to pave the road to the Unmanifest with blood and sweat; content with the harsh reality of carrying out its chief office along the way. In such a manner is comraderie established, and to echo the words of Wyndham Lewis in his novel "Tarr": "A man only goes and importunes the world with a confession when his self will not listen to him or recognize his shortcomings. The function of a friend is to be a substitute for this defective self, to be the World and the Real without the disastrous consequences of reality. - Yet punishment is one of his chief offices. The friend enlarges also substantially the boundaries of our solitude."

DISCOGRAPHY

1. "Turn the Pages of Time", cassette, 1991, self-produced
2. "Noiseresin", cassette, 1992, Doomsday Transmissions
3. "Koro", cassette, 1993, Doomsday Transmissions
4. "Eight Uneasy Pieces", cassette, 1994, Doomsday Transmissions
5. "The Psychecentric Womb", cassette, 1995, Sculpturesque Productions
6. "Ashes In The Incision", cassette, 1995, Sick Muse Recordings
7. "Fractured Cassette '95", cassette split with The Infant Cycle, 1995, Sculpturesque Productions
8. "It Came From Angled Space", cassette, 1996, Sculpturesque Productions
9. "Noiseresin", cassette re-issue, 1998, Austenite Recordings
10. "Fractured Cassette '95, split cassette with The Infant Cycle, re-issue 1998, Doomsday Transmissions
11. "Vortical Movements", CD, 1998, Musicus Phycus (forthcoming)
12. "Novis Plasteknich", CD, 1999, Art Konkret (forthcoming)

Note: some of older material from MIND SKELP-CHER which doesn't seem to be in print anymore may still be obtained by either Doomsday Transmissions (Koro, Eight Uneasy Pieces, Fractured cassette 95) or Austenite Recordings (The Psychecentric Womb, It Came From Angled Space).  Write or e-mail for additional information.

CONTACT
E-Mail: mindskelpcher@yahoo.com

Write to:
Austenite Recordings
P.O. Box 26142
Kitchener, Ontario
N2H 6T4  Canada